Really big shoe (in the mouth)

Never one to shy away from anything big; noises, smoke and smells, I couln't pass up at least one miltary shit storm. This one begs to be examined closer: The Battle of Karansebes. It's a little tough to dig up a lot of facts on so hang with me a bit, have faith.

Sometime in the fall of 1788, the Austrians were at war with the Ottomans. The Austrian army comprised about 100, 000 soldiers. Seems some of the scouts headed out to see where the enemy was and instead found some locals who were quite willing to part with some liquor. They had been walking all day and were very thirsty, and in the absense of someone to shoot at they got drunk.

As the day wore on the rest of the Austrian army caught up with the scouts, now with a good glow on, and asked them nicely to share. Fearing they might sober up and have to fight the enemy, they chose to sharpen their skills instead on there brothers.

What really happened, of course , there was one shot in the air that scared the real crap out of the soldiers. The ensuing runnning and yelling was just gas on the fire. In the confusion shouts were mistakenly interpreted. Cries of "the Ottomans are coming! struck fear into their hearts. To make matters even muddier, the army was composed of Italians, Slavs and regular Austrians of varying dialects, and . . . a few other nationalities just for fun, all of whom had just moments earlier been arguing over fair liquor rations for all.

The poor Austrian officers tried to restore order but that ended in more confusion. Their shouts were mistakenly understood to identify THEM as the Ottomans. Would someone just dish up an Ottoman?

Everyone went screaming through the woods and eventually got the whole army running around shooting at imaginary enemies.